Williams' death could help or harm depressed people

A marquee message at the Laugh Factory comedy club Hollywood pays tribute to the late Robin Williams, Aug. 12, 2014, in Hollywood, Calif. Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams was found dead in his Marin County home Aug. 11 of an apparent suicide. He was 63 years old.
(Photo:
Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
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The high-profile suicide of comic Robin Williams could play out in two drastically different ways for people suffering from severe depression.

It could save somebody. Or it could push a person over the edge.

The difference comes down to how resilient the person is and how much support they find in their daily lives, some mental-health experts say.

"It goes both ways," said Kimble Richardson, a licensed mental health counselor at Community Health Network. "A high-profile death does much to create awareness about depression. But there is still a stigma to reaching out to get help."

The issue is one of growing importance in Indiana, which outpaces the nation in suicide. More than 4,000 Hoosiers died by suicide between 2006 and 2010, according to the Indiana State Department of Health. The leading methods of suicide were firearms (54 percent), suffocation (23 percent) and poisoning (18 percent).

In Indiana, 13.1 per 100,000 people committed suicide in 2010. That's higher than the national rate of 12.1 per 100,000 people.

Williams, 63, was found dead Monday at his home. Authorities ruled the death a suicide by hanging. Williams' publicist said the comic actor had been battling severe depression.

Celebrity suicides can spark copycat deaths, going back at least to the death of Marilyn Monroe in 1962, some studies have found. The month after Monroe's death, the U.S. suicide rate climbed 12 percent, according to a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

When a celebrity such as rock star Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994, suicide experts noticed a spike in reports. "There were so many copycats after that," said Steven Rumble, a psychologist at Franciscan St. Francis Hospital.

For centuries, societies have frowned on suicide and considered those who died by their own hand to be weak. But when a celebrity commits suicide, that makes some people look at it in one of two ways.

On one hand, people suffering from depression might look at famous celebrities, with their career success, fame and riches, and conclude that even successful people might have a mental illness, and so it might not be that uncommon or terrifying, and might seek help.

On the other, hand, Richardson, said, a less resilient person might view Williams' death and think: "Wow, if he had everything and couldn't help himself, where does that leave me?"

Other experts agree the stigma of depression still looms large. People fear what their friends, family or co-workers might think if they learn about the depression.

"A lot of people don't want their boss to find out they're taking medication for depression or seeing a therapist," said Alice Jordan-Miles, assistant director of the Behavioral Health and Family Studies Institute at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

"If you're clinically depressed, there's an attitude that you're not stable enough to perform a job," she added.

Nationally, the suicide rate has been climbing every year since 2005, and is the 10th leading cause of death for Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The highest group at risk is men between the ages of 45 and 54, where the national suicide rate is nearly 20 in 100,000 people.

That's a time of life when people are likely to feel overwhelmed or vulnerable after losing a job or a loved one, some experts say.

Still, suicide occurs across all economic, racial, ethnic and social boundaries, and is a major preventable public health problem, according to an analysis "Suicide in Indiana Report, 2006-2011."

A contributing factor to the growing suicide rate is the struggling economy, which leads people feeling mentally defeated, some experts say. According to the medical journal Lancet, suicides in Italy motivated by economic difficulties increased 52 percent between 2005 and 2010. In Greece, rates rose more than 24 percent in just two years between 2007 and 2009, many also due to economic reasons.

The biggest challenge in dealing with suicidal tendencies is understanding the underlying causes. Pyschiatrists say that severe depression is not a character weakness, but a mental-health disorder. They are still trying to determine what causes it and the best ways to treat it.

"We don't know the exact cause of it, like we do for diabetes or lung cancer," said Dr. Harry Croft, a psychiatrist in San Antonio, Texas, and author of "Treating Your Depression."

"What we have is a brain disorder that has core symptoms that help define it," he said. "But different people suffer different symptoms and we don't have blood tests or imaging tests to diagnose it effectively."

Call Star reporter John Russell at (317) 444-6283 and follow him on Twitter @johnrussell99.